Damn I def underestimated Nate Diaz. I thought technique was going to beat cardio for sure but I was wrong.
well heres my recap
Jacob Volkman = unfunny and unfun to watch
Dong Hyun Kim - hopes he works on his striking more, he should be fun to watch in the future.
Loved the Ross Pearson fight, showed us he is still viable in the UFC.
Jimy Hettes = next big thing? Let's not get ahead of ourselves, hes a fucking beast but he still needs a test.
Old Vlad gave it a good run, good for him. Alexander is still swarming bitches.
Alistair is good fasho, but I'm still putting my money on JDS. I wish he had fought Cain or Shane instead, that would have been a way better test.

Several things. Smaller gloves than the boxing gloves Overeem uses in his kickboxing matches, larger size than anyone he faced in his recent grand prix victory and in Overeem he has an opponent that folds under pressure.

BJJ player Werdum landed more strikes than Overeem did in their last fight. His strike defence is not all that good. Now imagine Werdum having the kind of sledgehammer hands that Dos Santos has and Moonface Charlie could be in for a real ugly night.

I had very few doubts that Overeem would beat Lesnar convincingly. I also have great confidence that JDS will do the same to Overeem.

You do realize that Overeem fights differently depending on who he fights, right? He wasn't worried about getting hit by Werdum (despite how much you want to believe that lovetaps to the face are his kryptonite), he was worried about going to the ground. It was even more plain against Brock, where Overeem did not respect his standup at all and adopted a very low stance to better counter the wrestling.

He doesn't need to worry about JDS trying to take him down; he does need to worry about JDS's hands and his gameplan will reflect that. Anything could happen, but JDS is no Badr fucking Hari. Overeem is going to legkick and knee him right off the throne.

Not concerned about lovetaps, concerned about the titanic skullfuckers that JDS is likely to send his way. A K-1 champion has absolutely no business getting tagged that much by a BJJ player with one tenth his striking experience, strategy or not.

And I maintain that Overeem's strike defense is lacking for MMA - Kharitonov, who is good but not top-level, beat the **** out of him due to the aforementioned mental collapse. If JDS gets him wobbly, it will be over. Overeem is a quitter.

Jimy Hettes really surprised me, he seemed to dominate Nam Phan in the clinch and made really good use of judo hip throws and multiple o soto gari (leg reap) to keep Phan on the ground. I expected more from Phan on the ground seeing as though he's a BJJ BB, but Hettes seemed to control the whole fight. Certainly an exciting prospect for the future! This was my favourite fight of the evening, purely because I was excited to see so much judo in a single match. Sometimes there are entire events without any judo :(

Matyushenko vs Gustafsson

Nice KO by Gustafsson, Matyushenko walked right into a straight left but I was disappointed the fight didn't go on longer.

Fitch vs Hendricks

The Hendricks knockout caught me off guard, I rate Fitch highly and wasn't expecting that at all.

Diaz vs Cerrone was really interesting. Diaz clearly had superior boxing, which seemed odd as he trains most in BJJ (announced by Bruce Buffer as "a gracie jim-jitsu fighter"). Cerrone wisely avoided ground fighting, however this rendered his multiple successful takedowns with kicks useless as he just let Diaz stand up. Cerrone's kicks looked dangerous but his strategy depended on winning the striking fight (which he failed to do).

Lesnar vs Overeem

Overeem looks like a force to be reckoned as he easily dispatched Lesnar with blows to the body. He successfully avoided several takedown attempts by Lesnar (who IMO needed to take the fight to the ground to win). Lesnar crumpled after kicks, knees and punches to the abdomen (maybe due to underlying problems from his Diverticulitis which is a disease of the large intestine). Reem vs JDS will be an interesting fight that I can't wait for. Also sad to see Brock retire from MMA, he's only 34 but after a major illness like that I can see his reasoning.

PS- Great to see Ross Pearson representing England, especially as we both come from the same city! Coming off of a difficult split decision loss to Barboza he bounced back and got a well deserved victory.

Update 2012, this whole grappling & wrestling thing is now a past phase. The Pro Wrestling Gracie Illusion has been punctured. Everyone has figured out it can be 100% defended by bending your knees in the opposite direction. MMA is now back to full on Striking plus clinch work, as it should be.